Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey is the official second home of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. KCFAA’s Executive Director Tyrone Aiken sits down with Randy Mason to talk about making dance accessible to all people by presenting the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II, teaching young people critical life skills through dance, and modeling interracial and multi-cultural community partnerships.
“We are honored to help shine a national PBS spotlight on these KC treasures, Joyce DiDonato, The Kansas City Symphony and the new 
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. This effort is part of our strategy to leverage KCPT’s position in the PBS network to help showcase the many world-class assets Kansas City has to offer,“ said President and CEO of KCPT Kliff Kuehl.
Kansas City Symphony Executive Director Frank Byrne added “We are thrilled and honored that the Kansas City Symphony will be featured in the acclaimed PBS Arts Festiva
l, and even more pleased that our concert features our good friend and Kansas City native Joyce DiDonato. Music Director Michael Stern and I, along with all our talented musicians, look forward to sharing with the world the excellence of our orchestra and our superb new Helzberg Hall.”
Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato
PBS ArtsArchitect Moshe Safdie’s extraordinary new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts provides the stunning backdrop for a performance-documentary profiling the Grammy Award-winning musicians of the Kansas City Symphony, their vibrant artistic director and conductor Michael S
tern, and the radiant, internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. A concert wrapped by documentary narratives, this Arts Festival special tracks Ms. DiDonato’s nostalgic return to her hometown, and her thrilling Kauffman Center debut, after a triumphant appearance with Placido Domingo at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Together, Joyce DiDonato, Maestro Stern and the Kansas City Symphony create a musical program as grand and ambitious as the Kauffman Center itself. Produced by Kansas City Public Television (KCPT) in association with veteran PBS music producers James Arntz & John Paulson.
Figurative or abstract, organic or geometric, miniature or massive— sculpture has the power to move us in unexpected ways. Curator Jan Schall and Julián discuss how we experience 3D art and why the museum’s sculpture collection is world renowned.
Thursday, October 11, 2012, 6 pm.
Before you mutter….humbug… we’re joined by the Kansas City Rep’s A Christmas Carol’s most veteran star.
He’s been appearing in the annual holiday production for close to thirty years. You know him as Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge…though his friends and family call him Gary Neal Johnson.
On The Local Show, we like you to take places you never been before or haven’t been to in a while. Next up, we invite you to join us in the changing gallery at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine neighborhood.
Producer Sandy Woodson introduces us to local artist Ryan Haralson, whose work is featured in, “Bəyǿn♂ W☻®đs→”: {A Fusion of Poetry (+) Visual Art (+) Jazz}.
The exhibit Beyond Words runs through April 26th at the changing gallery at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine.
They’ve narrowed it down to three. Three sites that is for UMKC to build a new downtown arts campus that would include room for its Conservatory of Music and Dance, but also space for its theater and other arts programs. This was one of the Big 5 Ideas advocated by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce last fall.
Even though the UMKC Conservatory has been a part of Kansas City’s cultural life for over one hundred years, many of us still know little about this hidden jewel, working hard to raise its profile both here and across the country. In fact, our story starts on a March night in New York City.
What would a UMKC Downtown arts campus mean culturally and economically to this city?
You can join UMKC and top civic and arts leaders in a panel discussion at the downtown library on Wednesday, September 5 at 6:30 pm.
A new film that documents the relationship between President Harry Truman and Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast opens this weekend at the Glenwood Theater in Overland Park, Screenland-Crown Center, Screenland-Armour and the Pharaoh Theatre in Independence.
Tom and Harry: The Boss and the President is the third Kansas City centered documentary for attorney and filmmaker Terence O’Malley. He also directed Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time and Black Hand Strawman: The History of Organized Crime in Kansas City.
Kansas City is a great arts town and there’s a lot going on, particularly on our city’s stages, this weekend.
We leave you this week with scenes from two new productions. First, the fast paced farcical thriller comedy, The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Kansas City Repertory Theater.
Then there’s the political rock n rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Unicorn Theater.
Ryan Maybee is a restaurateur with expertise in the fields of wine, spirits and mixology. To him, the craft of bartending is more than just making a drink. Rather, he believes bartending is a true skill akin to the professionalism of chefs and their culinary educations. This belief in bartending as an art form has been the basis for his career and educational pursuits in the beverage industry.
In 2007, Maybee turned his vast knowledge and experience into a comprehensive consulting business. He launched RoundTable Marketing and Consulting, which specializes in wine list and cocktail menu development, staff training, and restaurant and bar consultation. Later that year, RoundTable partnered with beverage industry expert, Doug Frost, to create the Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition. The annual competition showcases some of the most talented bartenders in Kansas City and serves as a benefit for a local charity, the HALO Foundation.
In 2009, he opened Manifesto, a small, speakeasy like bar focusing on classically inspired cocktails using all fresh and homemade ingredients. In a short time, the bar has already received overwhelming local and national attention by being noticed in The New York Times, Esquire, and winning Small Wonder Bar of the Year 2010 by Nightclub & Bar Magazine.
The Rieger Hotel opened in 1915 and was home to many travelling salesmen, railroad workers, and passersby during Kansas City’s formative years. The three-story brick building has a long, rich history and much of the décor, including the tile floor and the bathroom fixtures remain original. It was originally owned by Alexander Rieger, the son of Jacob Rieger, who was the founder of J. Rieger & Co. Whiskey. J. Rieger & Co. operated out of Kansas City’s West Bottoms neighborhood, also known as “The Wettest Block in the World”, from 1877 to 1919. The whiskey distribution company became one of the largest in the country before Prohibition and the Volstead Act put an end to their success. But the Rieger name lived on here at the hotel, and in 2010 The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange brought back that classic name and identity. It’s our goal to honor the history of the Rieger name while adding a new and lasting landmark restaurant to Kansas City’s culinary landscape.
Recipe for The Pendergast:
1/2 ounce Bénédictine
3/4 ounce Sweet Vermouth
1 1/2 ounces Bourbon
Couple dashes of Angostura Bitters
Pour over ice. Stir to chill. Pour into glass. Zest with a lemon. Enjoy.
Visitors heading out to the Overland Park Arboretum are now greeted by a big surprise: a ticket charge. After more than two decades as a free attraction, the 300-acre outdoor venue just-off of 179th street and 69 Highway is now charging $3 dollars to enter and a buck for kids.
Thanks in part to the controversy over a bronze statue of a topless woman, last year was the best ever for the arboretum which is trying to get visitors to think of them as MORE than just a park. Joining us on The Local Show is the Chair of the Friends of the Arboretum Dennis Patton.
